"A Christmas Carol" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

'Tis the season* for A Christmas Carol. The Guthrie is in their 50th year of producing Charles Dickens' classic story of redemption, forgiveness, generosity, and kindness, and you can find many other iterations on various stages and screens. Lakeshore Players Theatre is throwing their hat in the ring too with a new original adaptation by the director Kivan Kirk. I love this story, so I was eager to experience a new version of it out here in the 'burbs. This lovely show is still the classic story we know, but from a fresh perspective, and full of heart and humor. A Christmas Carol is the first show in Lakeshore's four-show 72nd season and performances are already selling out for this crowd-pleaser, continuing through December 17.

Fringe Festival 2017: "Buffy the Bedbug Slayer"

Day: 8

Show: 30

Title: Buffy the Bedbug Slayer

Category: Comedy

By: Spike Tape Productions

Written by: Gina Musto

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Retired from vampire slaying, Buffy must face an even tougher foe - bedbugs and an evil landlord namded Drumpf.

Highlights: This show combines Buffy fan fiction, a creepy bedbug tale, and political satire. Even though I have yet to see an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (it's on my list of shows to binge) and maybe didn't get all of the show references, I still found the show amusing. Seemingly all of the popular characters are included, including a creepy sexy villain (Rob Brecher) in the form of a bedbug who's working with evil landlord Drumpf (played by a big-headed tiny-handed orange-haired puppet manipulated by Daina Ali), until he convinces Buffy (Emily Fletcher, who really looks the part) to join with him to bring Drumpf down. There are some pretty awesome fight scenes (choreographed by Maria Tordoff) with Buffy (literally) kicking butt, and who doesn't want to bring down an idiot billionaire with dozens of lawsuits against him from unhappy tenants? (No one in this crowd.)

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.